


The Remains of a Kingdom

by TomorrowComesToday



Category: Mario Story | Paper Mario, Super Mario & Related Fandoms, Super Mario 64
Genre: My First Work in This Fandom, Pandemics, Sad Ending, Short Story, Two Shot, mario 64 inspired, somebody's gonna die
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:20:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28657866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TomorrowComesToday/pseuds/TomorrowComesToday
Summary: Panic is raised when Bowser accidentally releases a deadly virus upon the Mushroom Kingdom, but that panic shortly abates when the citizens receive comforting words from their loyal Princess Peach. Some had their doubts, but they never voiced them. If Peach isn't worried, why should they be?Turns out those concerns needed to be voiced after all. But even if they decided to speak out upon the princess's instructions, it would still be too late. The effects of the once harmless virus were already taking its toll on the kingdom. Many people have died, people that Peach had considered family. Even if it feels like it's too late, there had to be time to take action, right?How would that go?
Kudos: 4





	The Remains of a Kingdom

**Author's Note:**

> I got the idea for this thing while playing SM64. I noticed how only things felt while jumping around in the courthouse, and that loneliness reminded me of current events, thus leading me into creating this. A lot of N64 games felt lonely, ngl, especially Glover when you first start playing. Anyway, hope you beautiful people enjoy this thing that I definitely didn't rush to push out. The beginning is kinda bland but I think I can promise that it'll get better over time.

Many years ago, a poisonous species of flowers thrived in the Mushroom Kingdom, reigning hell upon its citizens and rulers. No doubt, it was a peculiar flower - its dark raven color, rose-like appearance, and a scent of an orchid and lilac combined to finish it off. On paper, it sounds like a pretty normal flower, but looking at it could throw you off in a heartbeat. Something about it looked out of place, although people had never bothered to spend too much time trying to figure out what it was. Despite its odd look and smell, when you look at it for a while, it was absolutely beautiful. And that beauty, the way the velvety petals shined when morning came around, the way the red spiral in the middle looked...well, spirally, was exactly what captured the citizens of the kingdom.

Nobody knows where the flowers came from, the earliest lead they had being, well, Flower Fields. Even there, nobody had the slightest clue on who had planted the seed in the first place. Scientists would run thousands of tests on the petals, but the results were never what they wanted to know. Lots of people assumed that it was a small, sweet gift from their princess, and soon, everybody believed it. When word came around to the young ruler, she formally broke the news to them that she had no responsibility for the gift. Of course, nobody believed that for a second, too caught up with admiring the raven roses. The princess merely shook it off and forgot about it, seeing it pointless to try to shake their beliefs. If they thought that she did it, then so be it. It was just an innocent flower, the rumor wouldn't even leave a dent in her reputation.

The flowers began to grow in other places, fast. Everyone rejoiced at the marvelous sight, and the fan letters and love that the princess often received somehow grew in numbers. Wasn't this great? Why she must've felt awful that people had to travel far distances to see the flower and decided to spread them everywhere! That was so nice! Everyone looked at the flowers, although no one's ever had the guts to touch them or smell them. It was hard not to do so - the smell would overwhelm them with the urge to step closer, that they would die if they didn't. The smell was intoxicatingly delicious, the two scents mixing nicely. If this was any other flower, they would've followed their instinct and leaned over to take a good old whiff.

The thing is, this wasn't any other flower. Or maybe it was, but how would they know? At the time, they considered it to be a rare flower, the last of its kind in fact. To add to that, they had no idea if it was poisonous or not, but a lot of minds leaned towards the latter. The princess would never do anything to harm her beloved kingdom on purpose. It was a gift...

Wrong. It only took a month for people to realize that there was something awfully wrong with the petaled treasure. 

Things went downhill when a young Gooma, no older than 11, went for a small stroll late one evening. The flowers were beginning to grow there as well, although they were sprouting in a spot that was hard to find. That day, he was determined to find it, wanting to have something to brag to his friends the next morning. On his walk, he kept a watchful eye out for anything that looked like a secret entrance - cracks, suspiciously placed leaves, and most importantly, that infamous black color. He walked quickly, knowing that he only had so much time to find it. Suddenly, a sweet, floral smell struck his invisible nostrils.

He found it.

Following his nose, he found a small bush, and surrounding that bush stood a small group of beautiful flowers. His mother told him that touching anything in nature was a bad idea in general...but there had to be exceptions, right? Ignoring that nagging voice in the back of his mind, the muddy brown boy went with his gut, leaned in close, and...

_Spritz._

The plant sprayed a light red mist over the gap-tooth child, almost like a mechanical air freshener thingy that teachers have in their musty ass classrooms. He instantly stood and backed away as he went into a coughing fit. Fanning the puff away with his...um...head, he wondered what the mysterious mist was. Whatever it was, it was ten times stronger than your average spray of perfume. His eyes burned and his nostrils itched, no matter how far of a distance he placed between him and the flowers. No wonder his mother told him to keep his hands to himself. Nature was a bitch. Coughing and sputtering, making sure to spit out any of the sprays that might've gotten in his mouth, he put an end to his walk and decided to go home.

Little did he know that he would be going home with a disease.

Symptoms attacked him no later than that very night. His parents had been alerted into his room, the child freaking out about the sudden immobility in his legs, the blurry vision in his eyes. Anybody else would've looked at these symptoms and rush their loved one to the nearest doctor. But these Goombas? Nope, nope, nopity nope. The parents, as worried as they were, decided to wait, thinking that this was a normal cold...how foolish they were.

Mom fell sick the next morning. Dad fell sick that night. Neither of them could move, their bodies being thrashed by the violent coughs that racked their chests. A day passed, then two, then three and four, and they were completely useless as they lied in their beds, their minds in a constant state of rest. With their raging fevers and inflated lungs, it was a wonder that they even made it this far.

On day seven, they died.

Their neighbor came over on day eight intending to fix their mixed mail. When he opened the door, not only did his terrified cries fill the air, but so did the disease itself.

One after another, Goombas were dropping like freaking flies, some so desperate that they decided to move to other places of the Mushroom Kingdom. The princess had yet to receive word of the murderous illness that had destroyed Goomba Village, meaning that she had no idea that intentionally infected goombas were traveling to other parts of the world until it was too late.

Koopas were dying, Shy Guys were dying, everyone was suffering left and right, and the princess had more responsibilities than _ever_. She took the ones that were healthy into her home, she constantly risked her safety running out to get supplies, she was calling doctor after doctor, scientist after scientist, needing any kind of clue on what the hell this virus was and how they could stop it.

They couldn't figure out what the virus was. They couldn't find a cure, and soon, doctors who had contracted the virus were beginning to die. Everyone was looking at the princess for answers. What was happening? When would this end? Did she know that the flowers were poisonous, or was this a simple accident?

Well, _simple_ was an understatement.

It was getting worse - paranoia was taking control of every region of the kingdom, people were fearing that their time could end at any moment. If you coughed just one time, you had it, forget dust or allergies. Hearing the screams of her disgruntled friends outside the castle was hard. Hearing the hopeless sobs of her friends inside the castle was even harder. On some nights, she joined their cries. She'd join their shouts. How could she be so stupid? If she had put an end to those stupid rumors as soon as they surfaced and got rid of them, none of this would've ever happened.

She was the only lifeline they had left. She was the one who was keeping the fragile string together, and nobody wanted to imagine the horrors that would be unleashed upon the world if something were to happen to her. 

She was sick two months after the disease attacked the kingdom, and she died.

Nobody knows what happened after that, for most history books tended to skip out on those details. Thankfully, the flower had died out ten years later, most likely due to soil issues. There were only a few sole survivors, most of them consisting of a few of every species. It took a grand time for things to go back to normal, the apocalyptic wasteland bringing up horrible memories every time they would go to look outside. Luckily, and a little unbelievably, things were fixed up before our jolly heroes could be born. Mario, Luigi, Peach, you know the ones. Heavy guidelines were assigned to all of the places that were known for growing flowers since that day, and Peach made it her duty to check on those rules every year as soon as she took over. The flowers were dead, people said, but it wouldn't hurt to be safe. She would never make the same mistakes as that princess did, never.

That was a promise.


End file.
